With a new broadcast on the national radio and television network, Nicolas Maduro resurfaced on Monday at a rally with his followers from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela near the Miraflores Palace, in central Caracas, to assure opponents and interested parties: “They will never be able to take us out, under any circumstances, through revolution.”
Completely immersed in the narrative of his movement – according to which Chavismo is completely absolved of any responsibility for the country’s social and economic collapse – and seemingly without the slightest intention of leaving power, regardless of Washington’s threats, Maduro has reappeared energized, relaxed and smiling, after an absence of several days during which speculation about his political fate emerged.
Doubts multiplied, especially after US President Donald Trump admitted in an interview with the press that he had a telephone conversation with him, and the imposition of a final ultimatum from Washington was discussed many times.
With this action, Caracas responds to all the press speculation that predicted an agreed exit. “We have lived through 22 weeks of psychological terror,” Maduro said. “Guide of love for the country” The Bolivarian leader took the oath of office at the event held on Urdaneta Street, the comprehensive base of the leadership of the Bolivarian Community, a new organizational formula through which the supreme government attempts to spread its struggle to organize bloc after bloc throughout the country, assuming political and territorial control over the national geography with national defense as its highest goal. These “cellular” efforts, in which populations are organized into regional circuits, have also been undertaken in the military world.
Maduro used the occasion to announce the creation of a new Politburo, an empowered body made up of 12 leaders, “who will accompany him to lead all social and political forces.” “We are more than a party: we are a force, and we have achieved unity among all Venezuelans in the face of these imperialist threats,” he said.
This new example consists of the members of the official label: Diosdado Cabello, Jorge Rodriguez, Delcy Rodriguez and Celia Flores, among the most important members. They were all introduced and sworn in by Maduro himself at the event.
Although political enthusiasm is clearly not abundant, Chavismo, already downsized as a political movement, has organized in a disciplined manner around Maduro, providing new evidence of unity and organization at a particularly sensitive political moment.
What’s more: following Hugo Chávez’s strategic principle – deepening the revolution to ensure its stability after every siege by its enemies – the Chavistas appear willing to exploit the circumstances unleashed after last year’s presidential elections to take root whenever possible.
So far this year, amid controversy over the legitimacy of his election and increasing tensions with the United States, Maduro has raised the possibility of accelerating constitutional reforms to strengthen “popular power” as an executive body and project manager.
He also promised to create a “constituent assembly” to co-opt the entire trade union movement and offered to create an “ideal Bolivarian democracy” with new mechanisms of representation and participation; “Direct democracy, real democracy,” according to Maduro, is far from “the model of bourgeois democracy.”